Gaea 3.0 - Now in Development

Gaea 3.0 is now in active development, and it’s a major leap forward in how artists build serious environments. This release is about scale, realism, and speed—built on a new foundation that expands what Gaea can do without compromising its procedural core.

Here are a few high points from the preview:

World Space / Infinite Worlds
Terrains are no longer confined to a single square. Gaea 3 introduces true world-space workflows so you can build and explore massive, continuous regions—backed by the new TOR Engine 3.0.

Next-Gen Simulations

• Sand Simulation: A high-performance aeolian solver designed specifically for terrain—everything from subtle surface drift to kilometer-scale dunes, driven by realistic wind physics.
• Snow Simulation: A new physics engine enabling advanced snow tools that expand on Gaea’s existing suite.
• Rivers: A balanced workflow for guiding a river shape while letting the solver generate natural meanders and river history.
• Thermal Erosion (New): A next-gen thermal model delivering more natural patterns, sharper feature preservation, and improved sediment transport—alongside further TOR-powered improvements across erosions.

Terrain Building: More Tools, More Control

Gaea 3 expands the core terrain toolkit:

• New Primitives for shapes and scenarios we haven’t supported before.
• New/Expanded Surfaces for deeper control over non-sedimentary terrain, including natural effects like meltwater streams.
• Vector Tools: Long-awaited precision drawing for rivers, lakes, roads, envelopes, and more.

• 2.7D Displacement: Break out of strict 2.5D while still exporting heightfield-agnostic data. Triplanar displacement opens new rendering detail and realism.
• Draw Tools 3.0: A full rewrite combining vector and brush workflows, plus reference overlays for guided editing.

• EcoSystem Tools: Layered ecosystems, multiple dead zones, global interactions (water/sand/snow), and exports as masks, point clouds, or driver data.
• Renderer 3.0: A large-scale GI system purpose-built for 2.5D terrains, tuned for massive landscapes with high fidelity.

Workflow Upgrades Across the Board

Gaea 3 is packed with quality-of-life improvements based on real user workflows:

• Progressive Previews: Instant low-res previews that refine progressively as you work.

• Snap-Ins: A new extension system for deep, efficient node customization—direct access to internal data without extra nodes.
• Improved Mask Visualization: Overlay masks, switch outputs instantly, and inspect micro-values without editing the mask.
• Mixer 3.0: Color generators built into Mixer itself, reducing node clutter and cutting RAM use dramatically in high-res builds.

UI & Pipeline: Built for Production

Gaea 3 modernizes the full experience:

• Command Bar for fast global actions and node creation.
• Context-Sensitive UI that follows selection inside the graph.
• Improved Start Experience with file search, history, templates, and recovery.
• Multi-Screen Redesign with HUD-style viewport workflows.
• Full Localization at launch: Chinese (Simplified), French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish—plus community-friendly open standards.

And for pipelines:

• Native USD Support with terrain data, masks, and roundtripping.
• Gaea SDK (C#) enabling custom nodes, tools, and extensions—with optional C++ integration for custom solvers.
• Updated .terrain Format with built-in versioning, multi-terrain projects, and recovery.
• Build Stack, New Viewport, OCIO color grading, customizable/compact UI, and major plugin expansions (3ds Max, Blender, Maya, Unity, plus upgraded Unreal/Houdini bridges).

This is only the initial reveal. There’s a lot more coming, and we’ll be sharing details as development progresses.